By John Walker on October 8th, 2009 at 10:43 am.
Valve have launched an appeal for users of Steam to vote for Gordon Freeman as the “All Time Greatest Game Hero” on Gamespot’s site. Which brings the whole thing to our attention. It’s surely only right to see a PC character winning the battle against huge competition like Mario and Link. Currently Mr Freeman is holding a tenuous lead against Zelda’s pointy-hatted friend, 55% to 45%. Of course, don’t think it’s only the bespectacled mute that merits your vote – it’s just that he’s the only PC boy left. Duke Nukem was trounced by Link, and astonishingly The Nameless One was taken out in the first round by Ninja Gaiden’s Ryu Hayabusa. Seriously, we need to get in there to sort this mess out. The current voting audience saw fit to select Resident Evil’s Leon S. Kennedy over JC Denton. Good grief.
We’re more sympathetic to Shadow of the Colossus’s Wander beating Guybrush Threepwood – that’s a tough first round pick to be sure. But any voting audience that thinks Punch Out’s Little Mac is better than Phoenix Wright should be arrested and dissolved. Other PC characters weeded out in the first round include the Jedi Knight series’ Kyle Katarn being beaten by Ms Croft, and Thief’s Garrett ousted by bloody Frogger. (Although it’s hard not to slightly love the vote when you see Master Chief taken out in round one by Bub & Bob.)
Edit: Oh lord, I just noticed Manny Calavera was beaten by sodding Dante.
It’s at semi final stage now, with Mario taking on the lovely Samus Aran, and Gordon Freeman versus Link. It would be an incredible victory to see our boy taking on the might of such iconic heroes, so why not go along and offer your vote. Feel free to be thinking of JC Denton when you click on Gordon – he’d understand.
I’d like to point out that Masterchief got his ass kicked by Bub & Bob :D
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So would John!
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/cries
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To be honest the entire poll is a farce anyway and the Goons have the right idea by voting Bub & Bob.
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The whole thing is 4channed anyway. Choice is an illusion.
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Master Chief’s real name is John I think.
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The problem is that Link is actually a better character than Freeman. He’s got a longer lineage, is more ‘iconic’ and most importantly IS AN ACTUAL CHARACTER.
Gordon Freeman is utterly vacant. All of the personality in the Valve games comes from the people around you during the game, Gordon doesn’t do a damn thing. How can such a non-entity be the greatest game hero of a all time?
Guybrush Threepwood should have won.
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Yeah I kinda agree, especially on the Guybrush Threepwood part :p
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Double agreed. It’s kind of sad that the only PC character with any brand recognition is faceless and speechless. Hardly an icon worth celebrating.
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What’s Link’s personality, as a matter of interest?
EDIT: And doesn’t speak either. Frankly mute standard fantasy hero < Scientist Turned hero.
KG
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You can *rename* Link. That’s how little personality he has.
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Well, excuuuuuuuuuuuse me Kieron but he does speak sometimes : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPxY8lpYAUM
I know it’s not in any game (or maybe it is, I’m not much of a Zelda fan) but I just wanted to link this video :D
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holy shit
How can he say that so annoyingly
WHY DID I WATCH THAT
ARE YOU THE DEVIL
WHY WOULD YOU LINK SUCH A THING D:
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The way he has to reach up to open a door when he is a kid, or almost falls into chests, the little noises he makes when he’s cold or gets hurt, how happy he is when he gets an item. The little-boy yell when he does his sword swipe. He’s full of character, without any words. He’s the little boy out in the big world, having his first adventure, scared and excited at the same time. Lovely!
And then, when he grows up, that he doesn’t have to reach up to the doorknob makes a huge impact. He’s capable now, he’s experienced, and also has lost his innocence and sense of wonder. Character progression!
Link is full of character, and Kieron is full of smelly poo.
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And now I can’t watch Star Wars. Cheers, Choca.
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Freeman did beat Snake, though. So the Kojima fans must have stayed at home. Probably still only half-way through the intro cutscene to MGS4.
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Andrew: So… “generic”, yeah?
KG
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I’m pretty sure Pheonix Wright should have won the whole thing.
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“a masterclass in creating a sympathetic character through the bare minimum of behaviours.” more like. Yes. And accusing a game character of being generic is very much like accusing a games journalist of being an alcoholic.
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For the record I actually think Link is deeply pony too.
Mario is clearly the winner here by merit of being universally recognisable and utterly daft. He’s supposed to be a fucking plumber!
Though when have you ever seen him fixing Daisies pipes eh?
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Andrew, I’m not sure how this adds character to Link? Doesn’t the exact same thing apply to Gordon?
Sounds like you’ve just decided to read every aspect of the game as a testament to his personality, but refuse to do the same for Half-Life.
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Freeman is far more deliberately a blank than Link, as yo uare being asked to ‘become’ Freeman, rather than with Link who you are asked to care about and ‘share’ his adventure.
How the world reacts around and to Freeman is amazing, brilliant and amazing, but he very deliberately has no personality. Link does! Abd I was describing the little touches that build his personality up.
Plus ‘hero of world’ just doesn’t push the same emotional buttons as ‘little kid you want to protect’. If you prefer the power fantasy then that’s OK, that’s your decision, but it does make you the worst monster in the world.
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Link is a complete non-entity, proof that most people voting here can’t seperate ‘good character’ from ‘game I like’. His blankness is much more obvious and annoying than Freeman’s too, because of the third person perspective.
Freeman at least has his subversive nerd action hero nature to draw on, Link brings absolutely nothing to the table.
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Also, yes, that Freeman really actually doesn’t have a personality in the sense of being some sort of proxy person kept in limbo by the tie man to be brought out in times of emergency is a dead interesting sci-fi concept, but i’m not really sure that’s ‘personality’. It may appeal to dangerously dissociative personalities, I suppose.
I don’t know if i’m laying on this ‘Link is for lovely people and Freeman is for heartless nerds’ thing thick enough. I’m trying.
See, what Half Life is actually about is what Freeman is seeing in his head when ‘The Quiet One In The Office’ has a psychotic break and goes on a rampage.
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Agreed. Gordon “Never says a bloody thing” Freeman isn’t really a character, but he is all we have left… sad and slightly apocalyptic :D
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I think Link wins by default because he actually has a face. Gordon Freeman is a floating pair of hands. (And no, the box art doesn’t count).
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I like Link!
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I voted for Link. Gordon Freeman isn’t a character, as YOU actually are Gordon. Link is much more a person on his own.
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Is this not exactly why he is one of the greatest characters (if not the)? Gaming is all about putting the player in the position of the game, so having an almost empty shell to place a personality on is really a defining moment in gaming.
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are you trying to say that Link has better personality than you? a game character is better than you, real person?
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Neither Link nor Freeman are characters, really, they’re both just self-insert templates for the player to identify with. It’s actually a good match-up in that sense.
That said, you do get more attached to Link simply because it’s third person and you see him do everything.
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“Kyle Katarn being inexplicably beaten by Dig Dug’s Dig Dug”
It looks like Kyle Katarn beat Dig Dug but was beaten by Lara Croft in the second round.
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Thanks – fixed. I am easily confused.
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Voted, and I’m appalled that JC Denton lost to Leon Kennedy
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Wow, you guys must all be tedious. Gordon Freeman is YOU the player, you impose your own personality onto him which in this writer’s case anyway, makes him full of awesomeness and much better than link ;)
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If I was Freeman, the world would be sooooo f*cked.
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I almost came when I noticed Master Chief was out in the first round.
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Sometimes, /b/ wins at the internet.
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Unless Stephen Colbert somehow gets involved. Then /b/ FAILS.
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Should vote for Samus Aran on the other side too, try to knock out mario before the final.
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And because she’s all of the awesome.
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This is true. Here’s hoping for a future survival suit final.
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Tinfoil hat time! It wont let me vote FREEMAN!!!
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Refresh the page and it should work.
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I dunno: Gordon “Floating Invisible Murder Cube” Freeman is probably the only protagonist more silent than Link.
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Cate Archer >> Someone I’ve never heard of on the Sega Genesis. Seriously.
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FREE MAN, FREE MAN, FREE MAN
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Dude! They had Earthworm Jim! And he got beaten by Link. HAX! Sad Nerfball is sad. D=
However, the fact that the little yellow rat got crushed by kratos is good. Can just imagine him ripping out Pikachu’s spine. And he beat Cloud! Thank god for small mercies.
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Also: Am I the only one who renamed Link to be cunthead?
KG
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No, he should be thus labelled.
But work internet says no votes for me at all.
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Whipped is Link
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When I was too young to be aware of such words I think I called him bumface. “Hello bumface!” Oh the hilarity.
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Tangentially related to renamable characters; when I played Final Fantasy 7, I named all the characters after pronouns. When I ran out of those, I used plot or game mcguffins I had read in the manual.
Because clearly I felt that otherwise the writing would be too lucid.
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Looks like RPS have changed it by 0.1%. First poll rigging, next the world!
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JC Denton lost to someone like Leon?! What is the world coming to if the main character of the greatest game ever is barely even remembered anymore…
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Votes a little bit fecked. 4Chan has much to answer for in that regard, they(we?) love votes.
http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local-beat/Little-Soldier-Girl-Didnt-Want-to-Let-Go-63629627.html
I think Gordon is a decent character though. Nerd turned time travelling super-nerd superhero revolutionist.
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4chan is all over this poll
the results! they are meaningless!
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So, Guybrush lost out to some chap called Wander? Manny to Dante?
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I think these two are bad options.
I feel nothing for link. He is just a elfieske lara croft in lalaland. He has no character at all.
Freeman? again a no character. He talks, show any emotion or something?
Almost the only character in videogames is Duke Nukem, a… “Ford Farlaine”-ish 80′s dude. All the 90′s characters are sooo *-light and *-withouth that feel like air.
But, who cares? this is a popularity contest, so the more people on one side will win. The question (quality) has nothing to do. Is a question about quantity, how much people played “A cute console game” versus “How much people played this PC game”. We don’t even have to ask, based on where is the question hosted, and the sales of both games, the question resolve itself. It will probably be Link, since there are more sales, hence, more mindless voters on his side.
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Should have been the entire cast of Team Fortress 2, including the Sandvitch. More charisma than the rest of the competition put together.
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Charisma? In the promo videos perhaps…. not in the game.
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“Omnomnomnomnom”
“WHATS THAT SANDVICH? KILL THEM ALL?”
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Phemox has no soul
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“Jarate?! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO”
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FU Dante
just saying
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getting eaten by Pac-man later was a fate well deserved
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I don’t know
Everything he did in DMC4 was awesome
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pWvKx1x1pk
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It’s true, Dante is the king of high camp shirtless pretty boy posturing and related cheesy dialogue and general badassery- but he was up against Manny Calavera. There is really no contest.
I’m less sympathetic to the Link/Freeman faceoff. Both of them are, yes, mute personality-less player inserts. But Freeman is moreso. Link does have the occasional independant emotional reaction to things. Actually, in Wind Waker the little bastard was so expressive you’d think he was in a Kurosawa movie.
That and Half-Life bored the ever-loving shit out of me.
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Freeman, Mario, Link and Samus? How exciting. Four characters who’ve all been in games I very much like but, as characters, aren’t up to much.
Still, at least Samus far outlasted Master Chief. She’d totally ruin his shit.
You know I once saw what I think must have been a real life human being claiming they like Halo because of the interesting protagonist.
No, really.
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I guess the console crowd has voted… yet Gordon Freeman seems to make a good chance?
JC Denton, obviously from Deus Ex fame should have won. Like Duke Nukem should have too.
I wouldn’t have minded if Lara Croft came a bit further too.
Oh, and someone please hack that stuff so the Master Chief isn’t in there.
Lately I’m not much of a Valve fan, but Gordon Freeman is definitely one of my favorite game characters of all time. So is Max Payne, Duke Nukem and Konoko (Oni ).
Link on the other hand, hasn’t been my favorite ever since the Gamecube and Wii got those crazy 3D-ish games.
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That vote system effing sucks. It kept timing out on me, and then when I refreshed the popup, it returned me to the match-up page to tell me I had voted for Link. I failed you guys, I’m sorry.
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WHAT KIND OF SICK PERSON VOTES FOR FROGGER OVER GARRETT!!!!
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I did up the brackets when this first came out, and I had Manny Calavera against Gordon Freeman in the final round, with my last vote going to Freeman.
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I am naming my first male heir, JC Denton
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Just noticed Jade got flattened by the essentially-mute Samus Aran. Had a flash of rage, and realised the whole thing is meaningless. I think I burned something out.
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Why did I ever have to see that GOD DAMN poll? Fuck you, Internet. Fuck you.
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Can we vote for Gordon almost based solely on the fact nintendo can miss out in ONE hero poll.
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I don’t think Freeman needs to speak to be a good character, and that in fact that was the attraction of him. He is a shell in which you, the player, are placed; but you still remain wholly Freeman through the actions of the characters around you.
HL 1 sets the scene with the opening train journey, the “morning Mr. Freeman” and your own locker, but throughout the game Valve continued to add to the sense that you are playing as the silent Dr. Once you start engaging the Soldiers, and come across the graffiti claiming that I (as Freeman) was going to be brutally murdered made me chuckle because I felt I’d managed to really piss off some Soldier types by repeatedly shooting them in the face.
This feeling is continued in HL2 – the gravelly voiced Vortigaunts proclaiming me the “Freeman”, not to mention the G-man’s oddly phrased “Dr…… Freeman”. All the little things in both HLs are set to remind you that you are a) Dr. Gordon Freeman and b) awesome saviour of the world. The last point is true of a number of games, but the first one can’t be said of many – and definitely not the Zelda series.
Oh. Also. He stars in Half-Life 1 and Half-Life 2, two of the greatest shooters of all time. So, yeah.
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I can’t believe Raziel lost to Donkey Kong. I mean, Raziel! More people need to play through the legacy of kain series.
@Tom “I voted for Link. Gordon Freeman isn’t a character, as YOU actually are Gordon.”
And *I* am the greatest video game hero of all time.
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Everyone who voted for Link is going to Hell. Just though I’d let you all know. I’ll be there, too, for other reasons, so I’ll be happy to wail on you all with various blunt objects for eternity.
Oh, and the “Behind the Hero” for Freeman sucks. ONE IMAGE from Black Mesa?
And what’s with the Samus-bashing? She’s an excellent character with lots of depth. Just because you didn’t notice it doesn’t mean it’s not there. Hell, in Metroid Fusion (which I admittedly generally try and pretend never happened) she talks.
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The entire notion of a poll is a farce when there’s a candidate so absurdly clear of the rest, who scrabble around in the dirt beneath him.
Frank West. He’s covered wars, you know.
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Who is this Leon S. Kennedy character?
I just checked. He has an emo haircut and cool gloves. Therefore, he must a) be a console character and b) be of Japanese gaming descent.
The PC bigot in me is already breaking out in hives in an allergic reaction.
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As much as he does have silly hair, leon is unbeleivable awesome. After all, where’s everybody going? Bingo? Leon walked right up to JC and called him Smalltime, right there, right then.
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Leon S. Kennedy is the protagonist of Resi 4.
He had cheesy one liners that put Ahnuld to shame.
JC’s vision is augmented
I say it was an even match
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I read that as ‘Politically Correct Bigot’ and wondered how that would work.
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Urrrrr…. what the hell.
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Each round is clearly just a competition of “which character’s game have the most people played”.
How can Kratos be considered a greater hero than Cloud Strife?
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Kratos isn’t exactly a “hero” as such.
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Vivi>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>All other jRPG characters
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ahahahaha you are such a sterotypical FFVII fan
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LOL – omg!
Garret lost to Frogger? WHAT?
Niko Bellic lost to Ryu?! WTF?!?!?! Niko – choke full of character. Ryu – muscle hanging on bone.
Sam Fisher lost to the chunk of moron Kratos?! Who the fuck is doing the voting?! 12yr olds?!
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Gamespot, Tom.
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Don’t knock Kratos, the man is greek myth personified.
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JC DENTON DIDN’T MAKE IT OUT THE STARTING BLOCK. OMFG RRAAARRRRRGGGHHHHHH *screaming vitriol*!!!!! :)
Jesus christ. The writers/editors must be finding this so depressing. “All our words… wasted”…
From this day on the next person to suggest anything similar is going to find themselves ostresized at Gamespot I imagine.
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ABE LOST TO RYU. Abe fucking lost to Ryu!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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MANNY ISN’T EVEN ON THE BOARD!!!!!
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MANNY ISN’T EVEN ON THE BOARD!!!!!
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?
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To be honest, I’m hardly surprised by the results; GameSpot’s audience is seemingly made up of twelve year old boys who don’t know what a PC is and whose only knowledge of gaming comes from this generation’s consoles.
I bet they picked Leon Kennedy because of RE4 rather than RE2.
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He is the god of war
rollseyes
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Not voting for Freeman until Episode Three is out.
Why are we voting for a floating camera anyway?
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This looks a lot like the regular gamefaqs character faceoff, which has always had a horrific bias towards the Japanese Console market. Last one I saw, poor Gordon was the only western character to make it out of the first stage.
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C’mon, I can’t believe people are sayin that Link is a better character than GF. This goes beyond consolve vs. Windows. Link is generic, elfy, Robin Hood-garbed fantasy ponce that is similarly seen in a thousand other RPGs (such as my blond elven ranger BG. Wait, I didn’t make a blond elven ranger in Baldurs… because it would be such a boring character!!)
Freeman is a middle-aged, bespectacled scientist that is mysterious and most certainly a-typical. His character is primarily controlled and expressed by you the player, but there are secondary sources of character definition – why is the G-Man so interested in him, for example? His experiences and relationships with other characters also own anything Link has to offer too.
Good grief. At least the RPS people are on board.
The Dude abides.
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I’m with AndrewC and Dracko on this one. Gordon is a floating camera, designed specifically to efface himself in front of the actual player. By contrast, Link’s animations convey enormous amount of character, despite his being a silent protagonist.
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>>> Thief’s Garrett ousted by bloody Frogger
That has made me genuinely angry. Stupid f*cking clueless kids. Well, their loss.
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We need a popularity contest for this? I thought that it was common knowledge that the all-time greatest gaming hero is the Avatar.
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/still fuming
FUCKING FROGGER!!
JEEEEEEESUS!
I mean I played frogger a fair bit when I was, what, seven. But how could you possibly rate that above fucking Garrett!!
/implodes and then explodes
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Because Frogger is replayable and also happens to be a franchise that’s kept well enough alive, what with console rereleases and such. There’s no such love for Thief and I doubt Thi4f will do much of anything to solidify it either.
Are you people forgetting we’re talking about a medium far more tied into technological developments and marketing than most?
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4chan’s /b/ board united to push /b/ub and /b/ob and then in typical fashion failed. At least master chief got what was coming to him much to the Halo fanboys chargrin.
If Freeman doesnt win this I’ll strip naked, cover myself in jam and run up the local high street then put the resulting video on youtube
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Looks like there’s a huge Nintendo bias here. Link and Mario are brilliant but JC Denton is one of the greatest videogame characters of all time, while ironically Gordon Freeman is the blankest slate that the developers deemed worthy of a name.
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Link and Mario, I’m really happy for you, and imma let you finish; but JC Denton is one of the best videogame characters of all time! OF ALL TIME!
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GORDON IS NOT PC HE IS XBOX 360 FUCK U ROCKET PAPER GUN
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im not sure what a rocket paper gun is but i want one
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What are you talking about?
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Jus’ talking ’bout rocket paper guns.
I can dig it, TBH.
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We’re up to 56.5! Keep voting, people!
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Make that 59.5%! :D
By far the worst travesty of this poll was Cate Archer’s loss to fucking Strider Hiryu. People only voted for him because he was a goddamn anime ninja!! It wasn’t even CLOSE, she didn’t even get 30% of the vote!
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Awww, I totally would have voted for Cate Archer. Not that she’d have a chance in the long run given how unknown those games are :(
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Meh, Strider is a way more iconic character fully deserving the win, No one lives forever was a middling to good game massively overrated by the press that’s gained a bit of cult status. Strider on the other hand is a classic, one of Capcoms first big hits.
Also one of the first games I got on the MegaDrive, and without a doubt one of the best games of that console generation (MegaDrive(Gensis) and SNES).
I even had a poster of Strider and the Giant robot ape you fight (a home made poster on my Amiga and colour dot matrix printer). I wonder how many kids, if any had posters of Kate Archer on their walls?
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Strange.
This vote isn’t about ‘character’, that much is borne out by looking at which characters got kicked to the curb. Duke Numkum? Master Chief? Lara Croft? Those guys have buckets of character, in the sense that they get plenty of lines and you could write 50 words about their personalities. Didn’t do them much good.
Quotable lines and a fleshed out background didn’t amount to much in this race. That’s not what people have voted for. They’ve gone for Avatars. Mario, Samus, Link and Dr. Freeman are all persona to inhabit. Their trials become your trials, their goals and concerns become yours, and their triumphs are shared with you. You don’t simply watch them win, you *are* them when they win.
That’s why my vote goes to Gordon. His story has been the most compelling, his adventures the most absorbing, and his losses the most wracking. He is the one most shaped by the events of the games he inhabits. Character progression isn’t finding the princess, clearing the dungeon or unlocking a better suit of armour. Character progression is what happens behind the eyes of an ordinary man set against extrordinary odds.
Stepping up. Raising the bar. That takes character.
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Precisely.
Unfortunately the twelve year olds voting, haven’t played it I suspect. Or if they had would sum it up as, “gaay, u has a rench for wepun?1 lulz”
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Are you implying only 12 year olds like Mario, Zelda, and Metroid?
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Are you also implying Half-Life is too sophisticated for 12 year olds?
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gulag: “Stepping up. Raising the bar. That takes character.”
I had about twelve crowbar puns lined up, but I resisted. I have to admit, Gordon Freeman has a certain pull about him. People gravitate towards him because of this pull, which is almost like a force of nature.
Right? RIGHT?
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Bravo, sir!
Also, you forgot to mention than no other franchise spawned anything nearly as hilarious as HALF LIFE FULL LIFE CONSEQUENCES!
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Also I should clarify that hilarity transcends the need for petty relevance.
And if Valve is serious about taking out this contest, I’m predicting some Ep3 news in the leadup to the final.
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People should really be more offended that a fat Italian plumber is winning against gaming’s first widely-recognised female protagonist.
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Gordon will redempt her next round.
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That vote isn’t over yet, go cast yours!
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I’m with you Andrew!
Of course, it depends on the Zelda game you’re talking about. But in Ocarina of time he had an awesome personality. I basically agree with everything you said about how they managed to build up a great attachment and personality for him without actually having him say anything.
I wouldn’t say he’s the greatest game character of all time, but i’d say he has a lot more personality than Freeman.
Obviously though, Lamarr should have won.
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I tried to vote – but I failed, I couldn’t find anywhere to actually cast a vote :D.
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There was an error with your vote. Please try again.
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Find the link to the iPhone version, that seemed to cast my vote fine.
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I think you have to be a member to vote.
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Nah, anyone can vote. :)
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Why is there no Kirby?
Kirby wins over all them lot…
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Manny Calvera and Guybrush Threepwood should be in the finals. :(
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Seconded. Can we host a poll just between these two on RPS?
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Wow Gordon knocked out Solid Snake by less than 1%!
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A certain Anonymous group has been voting up people, like Freeman now. Bub & Bob was completely them.
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So this is actually a battle between the /b/-tards and the c-tards.
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Everyone knows that the final is not between Mario and Gordon – it’s between the tash and the full beard. Foregone conclusion.
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Seconded! :)
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Count me in to help the Freeman to the top!
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I don’t know if I could vote for Mr Freeman over Link. ABSTAIN.
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In other news, Master Chief was beaten by Bub & Bob from Bubble Bobble.
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Like it should son, like it should…
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Thank 4chan for that.
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That’s awesome! John! Did you notice that Master Chief was beaten by Bub & Bob?
KG
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You should really have a quiet word and ask him to mention these things when people are clearly interested.
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I was depressed by Garret from Thief being beaten by Frogger!
FROGGER!!!
*sighs*
Gobion
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Why? Is Garrett particularly iconic compared to the little guy?
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who the fuck is voting for fucking frogger?!
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Garrett is a character. Frogger is a frog without personality (at least in every version I ever played)
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they shouldve put garret against pac man. at least that would have some comical relevance
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“Frogger is a frog without personality (at least in every version I ever played)”
He’s also an iconic image, and name. Whether or not your cave of snootery allows such things is another matter.
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I really hope people who are claiming that Frogger rightly owned Garrett due to iconism will be voting for Freeman. It appears to be the same argue (empty vessel, iconic as opposed to character driven). Except in the case of Gordon, it’s not strictly true, of course, and he should clearly beat out the elf.
The amount of cheery Nintendo love here is surprising.
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“The amount of cheery Nintendo love here is surprising.”
Being a gamer=you like nintendo to some degree. This is fact.
Also, I voted for Freeman
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“Being a gamer=you like nintendo to some degree. This is fact.”
Bah, humbug!
Being a gamer grown on the Atari 1040ST and Amiga I like Civ. Popolus, SuperCars, SpeedBall etc etc. The first ones for letting me think. The latter ones for the multiplayer. Nintendo never even came close.
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I’m with mootpoint, but I’d take it further. As a kid I actively blamed Nintendo for the death of Atari, so my position wasn’t one of indifference so much as overt hostility. Sega and PC were my platforms of choice.
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Pseudonym: Irrelevant. When was the last time Thief got some media love, let alone marketing?
Yeah, exactly, Frogger stands for a lot more than Garrett, whether you like it or not.
This isn’t about who has the better game, it’s about who is the most iconic.
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Half life 1 has loads of charm and personality and great design but half life 2 is so flat (prob cos its multiplatform). Zelda on the snes was one of a kind, as was ocarina. Link looks so asthetic compared to boxy gordon. Links personality comes through in smash brothers too. That relentless ‘on a mission’ fighting against everything thats in the way isnt done better anywhere else. Link has fucking tons of personality to be honest (sound samples and animations and facial expressions, and he walks like a bad ass) and gordon is one crappy picture of a boring middle aged man. Just look at the art styles of the two pictures. Dont even get me started on how stupid JC Denton looks.
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“Half life 1 has loads of charm and personality and great design but half life 2 is so flat (prob cos its multiplatform). ”
1.HL2 didn’t become multiplatform until later. Muchlike HL1.
2.Have you ever, ever, played a console game? If you think Okami, Killer 7, Viewtiful Joe, Shadow of the Collosus, Ico, Metroid, Ratchet and Clank, Shin Megami Tensei, Mario, Vagrant Story, Chrono Cross, and about one million others *all* lack loads of charm, personality, and great design, you have terrible taste.
End of story.
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sorry im struggling to follow. When the hell did i say all console games lack those things? I voted for Link! I’m saying the design process suffered in half life 2 cos its multi platform. I remember reading about it before it came out with gabe or someone saying “we wanted to make the entire game very accessable for all ages”.
Wait…. half life 1 never came out on other platforms did it?
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Half-life was almost a dreamcast port and became a ps2 port instead. But that was post-release, not part of the design process.
Half-life 2 was originally designed only for PC. The XBox port was a year later (and was terrible) and 360/PS3 versions came another two years later.
Soo… swing and a miss?
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“The XBox port was a year later (and was terrible)”
Broken PC, and no internet, meant that’s what I was forced to play it on. It’s the same game, but with worse graphics, and it still looked better than anything I had seen up to that point >_>
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Now that is a hardship, my friend.
A true hardship.
Ah well, though, it’s still Half-life 2. There’s a hell of a lot worse you could’ve been doing…
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First time I played Half Life 2 was on my xbox, blew my little console gamers mind.
PC convert now : )
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Manny Calavera, the Nameless One and JC Denton were fucken beaten by those?
Oh, for fuck’s sake, they won’t beat the One Free Man.
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And in other other news, Titanic voted best film of all time.
Me, I’m off to read The Republic.
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I cast my vote for the Freeman as I must.
Now, I’m off to rage silently about Garrett, JC Denton and Manny not being closer to the finish line.
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Amen brother.
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Now if only the tetris L-block had been a contestant…
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Now that GameSpot is hosting these instead of just GameFAQs the results are different. It used to be that Cloud vs. Link was the finals every single time. Because there’s nothing that gets the typical GameFAQs user excited like pointy haired fake soldiers of angst.
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I put my vote in for Freeman because a PC game’s character should be in the final, but I agree with what others have posted in that Link is by far the more interesting character. Elf Kid beats a camera with 2 disembodied arms any day of the week.
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But one of those disembodied arms wields The Crowbar!
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bonk bink bing bang bonk
Crowbar wins again :-)
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Gamestop hates me.
The videos crash Firefox, and the site just never works in general.
I would have voted Link, purely because i enjoyed the LoZ games far more than i enjoyed Half-Life.
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58.2 to 41.8, WE’RE WINNNIIIIIING
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They voted off JC Denton??
What a shame.
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Kindergarten?
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I’m all for PC gaming but Link is ten times the character that nimrod Gordon Freeman is….
*Votes Link*
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amen to that shiz ma grizzo
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Yeah, if the scores were closer I might have voted for Freeman just because he’s a PC character. But it looks like Gordon will win anyways, so I’ll stick to what I really think and vote for Link.
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Apparently I already voted for link. Stupid internets.
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last time i saw gordie he was laying dead in a container. crying about how tough the zone was.
Just how i like him.
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As much as I love GF, I really enjoyed that SoC reference. Nice one!
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Strelok is way cooler than Gordon Freeman.
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Behind Freeman’s beard there’s just another crowbar.
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I’d just like to point out that Freeman has gone up by 3.2 % since this was posted. Bravo!
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Megaman lost to Samus? Sadness.
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How the hell does the Nameless One lose to Ryu? He’s unkillable.
People are stupid.
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Actually, no.
If The Nameless One was eaten it was game over.
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Yep, you heard it here first. Ryu ate the Nameless One.
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Is that Ryu’s new Ultimate, I guess? Rising Lightning Dragon NOMNOMNOM
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email gabe newell and tell him if gordon wins the communities prize should be HL2EP3 stuff. How sick would that be.
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But what if you don’t think Freeman is the best gaming hero of all time? He pretty much has zero personality for one thing. And all time? I don’t think so. I actually find it sad that Freeman is apparently PC gaming’s best representative.
Also, you can’t bully me into voting for your candidate. This isn’t Zimbabwe!
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freeman is a lame character mainly due to the fact there is hardly any character to him
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Huzzah for physicist-protagonists!
Normally I ignore these things, but the chance to vote up Freeman AND vote down that overrated Zelda thing is just too good to pass up.
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originally, freeman had no character because you were him.
Halflife 2 comes along and actually turns Freeman into a character that you play, you are no longer the player and things are happening around you. You are now playing a character that is running through set pieces. Its a complete turn around from the original. The original everything that happens is that you think its happening to me, because they immerse you as the character. Half life 2 now shows that freeman is not you. He is his own character and that you are simply playing out his life.
Niether is wrong though. Oblivion is played as you are the character and everything is happening to you. The witcher is played as the White wolf, and you direct his actions through the story. Both fantastic rpgs, but played out differently. Causing you to either associate with a character, or actually feel you are the character.
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He’s not the best PC game character ever, that much is obvious. He’s a better representative than you give him credit for, but the crown unquestionably goes to Manuel Calavera.
I guess he’s just the best known PC protagonist? Figurehead for PC gamers, is all.
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The fundamental problem is that most of the best PC games either don’t involve a character, or don’t involve a pre-made character.
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No, but there are obvious examples that /do/, and do so better than any console game I can think of. To be fair, thats not actually that many, seeing as the only console only games I’ve really enjoyed have been Ico and SotC, neither of which had fantastic characters.
Erm. The aforementioned Calavera, Threepwood, REVEREND RAY, Fisher (he can just about count as a PC protagonist), The Prince What Was Out Of Prince Of Persia (Sands of Time), that infuriating woman from Dreamfall/TLJ. I would include Garret if he hadn’t been voiced so infuriatingly poorly. Maybe even Codename 47, he was pretty cool. Ermmm, I’m out of ideas for now.
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To be honest I would probably have voted Link in a vacuum (no personality vs very minor personality), but, thinking about it more, Link wins every damn poll like this so voting Freeman will make the finale more original at least.
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How on Earth do people think that Link has a lot more character than GF? All Link ever expresses is happiness and surprise, that only rarely, and then just by smiling or looking stunned. Sure, it’s more than Gordon, but not much more.
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yeah try playing the game
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That Nintendo=Gaming is one of those very americancentric positions in the anglophone market. Nintendo really did rule the 80s in the US. They simply weren’t a mainstream force at all in the UK.
KG
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The battle of greatest gaming hero was one I used to think about during English lit, so I’m unusually riled about this. A lot of the contenders are the same that I would have put down at the time, but it always came down to Sam Fisher, J.C. Denton, the Nameless One, Max Payne (where is he, anyways?), Jack Carver (also missing), and a couple others. Cate Archer is a good addition that I had forgotten about. I’d probably add Geralt from the Witcher and Strelok from STALKER also. Ah, the nostalgia.
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Was in a presentation where four people were facing off over whether or not story is important for games.
I almost lost my temper following a complete failure to mention adventure games (Text games did get a nod) and a list of story strong games that were pretty much all console games, no Deus Ex, no longest journey, etc. etc. They missed out Beyond Good & Evil too. Basically the two who were speaking in favour of story in games demonstrated a very clear console gaming bias, I feel this is an unjustice that shouldn’t be tolerated, so I guess I’m revealing my bias there too.
It didn’t help that I’d seen the rev rant yesterday about the Super Metroid trilogy apparently being the citizen kane of gaming… Revs reaction was roughly the same as mine, btw.
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I know. I’m really not sure where these opinions come from, and why they are relatively unchallenged.
Also, rev? What is this thing.
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This is the Rev Rant I just mentioned.
http://www.destructoid.com/rev-rant-what-151210.phtml
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I did my part, Gordon Freeman FTW!
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Neither “character” is actually a character. They’re just your eyes and ears and hands. They have no will or personality of their own. I couldn’t in good conscience vote for either
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This kind of poll is retarded. Half of the people voting haven’t even seen the characters they are voting against. It looks positive now, but just wait until all the little console kiddies get back from school.
Anyway Gordon Freeman ftw. :)
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These sorts of voting things are really stupid to begin with. It’s basically a huge popularity contest. I mean it’s like: Yes, acting like a bunch of high schoolers is exactly the way we should decide these sorts of things, let’s completely ignore any context, the strength of the game the cahracter is from and the quality of writing and voice acting put into the character. (Assuming there was any voice acting.)
It’s just stupid.
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Still, did you hear that Master Chief got beaten by Bub and Bob ? How awesome is that!
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@AndrewC:
Only because of 4chan votespamming, for the lulz.
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Don’t look a horse in the teeth
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I voted for sandvich.
…I think I’m on the wrong website.
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You guys are all being really stupid. Of course it’s a popularity contest, not a merit contest. How the hell could it be anything but? You’re taking it much too seriously.
And Gordon is only where he is now, because it’s 4chan’s last-ditch effort to screw with the results, after their attempt to get Bub & Bob to win was thwarted (similarly, it was 4chan who put Little Mac ahead of Phoenix Wright; MOST of the counter-intuitive victories were the result of 4chan goofing around). It has nothing to do with your “glorious PC gaming master race” coming out in force.
“Seriously, we need to get in there to sort this mess out.”
That’s an awful lot of superiority complex dedicated to a pretty stupid little poll.
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You’re getting pretty het up for someone who’s presumably not taking this seriously. Just sayin’.
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Sounding a bit serious there for someone accusing people of taking things too seriously ;)
And the superiority complex is only there because our glorious PC gaming master race is obviously superior. :D
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No, you are!
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@Cedge: I’ll have you know that the Internets are SERIOUS BUSINESS.
4chan’s desire to subvert all everything is probably the best, last hope to avoid yet another landslide victory for the world’s most overused Italian plumber, so “marblecake, also, the game” it harder. Hell, it’s almost a shame it’s not his old washed-up, un-naturally coloured, spiked competitor he’s up against.
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Gordon has won, and faces Mario in the finals.
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http://uk.gamespot.com/greatest-video-game-hero/vote/index.html?battle_id=63
I don’t think I need to tell you what to do here…
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wow, its now 70% for gordon, seems like valves request paid off
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for the final 1 that is
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Gordon Freeman a flat character?
Haven’t you seen Freeman’s mind? He’s the only contestant with the guts to ask if Nietzsche was in a band. (Freeman’s thoughts: Probably.)
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The second picture of Freeman in the "Behind the Hero" section is Barney. I'm pretty sure they wouldn't make that same mistake with Luigi. Therefore, Mario is the more iconic.
That wasn't enough to make me vote for the little bastard though. I'm sick of Mario games, and the way they're fun for the first three worlds then hit you with all kinds of irritating moving spiky death platforms and instant death scenarios that steal any fun from the game.
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“the way they’re fun for the first three worlds then hit you with all kinds of irritating moving spiky death platforms and instant death scenarios that steal any fun from the game.”
Mario games have been painfully easy since the N64 >_>
I think you’ve mixed up Mario, with I Wanna Be The Guy. Which incidentally, I love :|
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New Super Mario Brothers on the DS is most certainly NOT “painfully easy.” That thing is a real bitch.
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Disclaimer:Beating Ghosts’n'Goblins warps your perception of “easy”
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I’m not claiming it’s Ghosts ‘n Goblins hard, but it’s certainly the match of the old 2d Mario games.
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I guess if I’m not stuck on one bit, for hours on end, I feel like I’m just waltzing through the game now :\
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Well, It was New SMB on the DS I was referring to (and Mario 64 DS, with its painful control scheme), and I hadn’t played a 2d platformer for year before that. I think the last one I played was Superfrog. ;)
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Woah, final time guys – get the votes in!
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Well, it is a question of the greatest hero and while the Free Man might not be an amazing characters he is no doubt the greatest hero. Mario is a wuss.
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I dunno — Mario’s pretty badass, I have to say. I fondly remember having many adventures with him in my youth.
Oh, well; he wins everything, anyway. I voted Freeman.
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It’s on to Freeman vs Mario now, currently Freeman ahead 60.9% to 39.4%
In terms of votes that’s a roughly 15k point lead right now, but yesterday’s poll had almost 200k total votes so there’s plenty of room left for things to change.
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wow, sorry but link should have won. As PC as i am, Zelda is Zelda.
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I voted for Gordon, but I was thinking of Mr. Denton and the Nameless One.
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I agree with Colin, except I was also thinking of Guybrush Threepwood, Cate Archer and Garrett. All of these got beaten out by relative nobodies. JC Denton and the Nameless One especially though. Also Jade is way better than Samus.
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I don't know if it was noticed yet by RPS, but Gordon Freeman won by 5.8% go Gordon :D
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